FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT COURT COSTS - PAGE 2

It's official. The Lord's Prayer will no longer be part of the Greencastle-Antrim School Board's agenda. The board observed a moment of reflection while the audience - smaller than in previous meetings - recited the Lord's Prayer aloud. At its last meeting, board President Eric Holtzman said the district's legal counsel advised pulling the prayer from the agenda and replacing it with a moment of silence. But, on Thursday, board Vice President Brian Hissong, filling in for Holtzman who was not in attendance, made it official.

A 16-year-old boy admitted Wednesday in juvenile court to the unsafe backing of a motor vehicle, a traffic offense. On June 29, he backed into another vehicle in the area of the Dunkin' Donuts on Dual Highway, Assistant State's Attorney Michelle Flores said Wednesday. When police tracked the striking vehicle to the boy's home, the boy and his parents were very cooperative, Flores said. The boy's parents were out of town when he used their car, she said. Washington County Circuit Judge Donald E. Beachley, sitting in juvenile court, said the boy, who had only a learner's permit, should not have been driving.

The Maryland Court of Special Appeals has upheld most of a $151,000 jury award against a Williamsport man sued by his neighbors for shooting two of their pet dogs. In 2010, a Washington County Circuit Court jury awarded damages to three families who had sued Jeffrey Lynn Hurd of 11845 Camden Road. Hurd was sued by Eric and Mary Haberkorn, Arthur and Sonja Perschuk, and James and Renee Rudolph for intentional infliction of emotional distress and nuisance claims for the shooting of the Pereschuks' dog in 2007 and the Rudolphs' dog in 2008, as well as allegations of spying and other harassing activities by Hurd over a period of years.

HAGERSTOWN - A Washington County man who represented himself during a jury trial Thursday morning in Washington County Circuit Court was taken into custody by lunchtime. Norman Taylor, no age available in court documents, was charged with theft in the case of a missing 1996 Volkswagen Passat that a woman took to USA Transmissions on Maugans Avenue for repair. Taylor appeared in court without a lawyer but requested a jury trial. A jury deliberated for less than half an hour before finding Taylor guilty.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- A Martinsburg-area woman who ran a fundraiser for a terminally ill child in April 2007 and failed to pay event vendors or give any proceeds to the girl's family entered a guilty plea in Berkeley County Magistrate Court on Wednesday to a misdemeanor count of obtaining money by false pretenses. Jennifer Nicole Swartz, 34, of 141 O'Connor Lane, agreed to pay more than $3,000 in restitution to the vendors and court costs as part of a plea agreement reached with the Berkeley County Prosecuting Attorney's office.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - The local director of the state Division of Motor Vehicles will serve six months in jail for driving with a revoked license, despite his plea for alternative sentencing, a judge decided Wednesday. Berkeley County Circuit Judge David Sanders ruled that a previous sentence imposed on Craig Loy, who heads the Martinsburg DMV office, will stand. Loy, 40, of 402 Porter Ave., Martinsburg, will serve six months in jail for driving on Jan. 22, 1999, several months after his license had been revoked.

A 19-year-old Williamsport woman who pleaded guilty on Tuesday to striking a teen-age girl in December was given probation before judgment by a Washington County Circuit judge. Heather Renee Stotler, 19, whose last known address before her arrest was 18 W. Church St. in Williamsport, pleaded guilty to second-degree assault in a Dec. 17, 2003, incident. Circuit Judge W. Kennedy Boone III sentenced her to probation before judgment. Probation before judgment is a conditional avoidance of imposition of sentence after conviction.

waynesboro@herald-mail.com WAYNESBORO, Pa. - Misdemeanor theft charges against former Waynesboro Fire Chief Dale Glenn Fishack Jr. were dismissed this week after Fishack agreed to pay restitution and court costs, District Justice Larry G. Pentz said Tuesday. Fishack had been scheduled to appear in court Tuesday on the charges, Pentz said. Fishack said Tuesday he was pleased that the charges were dropped. "There never was an intent to keep anything from the fire department.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. -- The Franklin County (Pa.) Commissioners and other members of the criminal justice advisory board received a report Thursday that said the courthouse is undersized for current operations, let alone prepared for the addition of a fifth judge in 2010. Consultants from the National Center for State Courts and Carter Goble Lee recommended master planning to design more effective spaces. "Both studies indicated that future population growth and caseload projections will result in the need for a sixth and possibly seventh judge in the next 20 years," the commissioners wrote in a press release.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. --Â A 71-year-old Hagerstown woman accused of taking more than $30,000 from the Berkeley County chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America entered a guilty plea to a misdemeanor count of embezzlement on Monday in circuit court. Josephine Wright of 12433 Gateway Ave. was placed on probation for five years and ordered to pay court costs and $35,374.78 in restitution as part of a plea agreement that was accepted by 23rd Judicial Circuit Judge Christopher C. Wilkes.